Andre Iguodala has hardly played this season for the Golden State Warriors. He has been on the court for just 113 total minutes in eight games, and now, after suffering a fractured left wrist, the Warriors announced Iguodala will undergo surgery next week. The injury came in Monday’s win over the Phoenix Suns, and the Warriors have not yet offered a timetable for his return, instead saying that an update will be offered after his surgery.
While we don’t yet have a clear picture of how long it will take Iguodala to recover from the injury, we have to acknowledge how little time remains in the season. The regular season ends on April 9, less than one month from now. And while the Warriors may go on an extended playoff run, they may also get knocked out in the play-in round. In other words, we don’t know how long their season is going to last, so we don’t know how much time Iguodala has to recover.
This is especially relevant because Iguodala has already announced that this will be his final NBA season.
“I came back last year to make sure we got this s— right, like, ‘[We’re] not gonna waste Steph’s years,'” Iguodala said when he re-signed with the team in the offseason. “We won the chip and I was like, ‘Alright.’ And he was like, ‘Nope I need you back for another one.’ I’m letting you know right now, Steph, this is the last one.”
If Iguodala’s recovery takes more than a month, it is therefore possible that we have seen him play in his final NBA game. If that is indeed the case, he retires as not only a key member of a dynasty, but a borderline Hall of Famer. While he made only a single All-Star Game in his career, he is a four-time NBA champion, a Finals MVP and a gold medalist for Team USA. He is widely considered to be among the greatest sixth men in NBA history.
Whether or not Iguodala ultimately reaches the Hall of Fame, he will retire as a Warriors legend and will likely be the first member of this dynasty to see his jersey retired into the Chase Center rafters. Hopefully he can recover from this injury quickly enough to give the Warriors an extra jolt in the postseason, but if he can’t it will be the end of one of the most underrated careers of this era of NBA history.
